Road Atlanta: Series Wednesday notebook

PETIT LE MANS POWERED BY MAZDA6 WEDNESDAY NOTEBOOK
Jorg Muller marked his return to Road Atlanta and the American Le Mans
Series with an impressive showing in Wednesday's test session for the 12th
annual Petit Le Mans powered by ...

PETIT LE MANS POWERED BY MAZDA6 WEDNESDAY NOTEBOOK

Jorg Muller marked his return to Road Atlanta and the American Le Mans
Series with an impressive showing in Wednesday's test session for the 12th
annual Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6. The Series' 2001 GT champion was
second quickest in GT2 behind the wheel of the BMW Rahal Letterman Racing
Team BMW M3 that will share with full-season partners Dirk Muller (no
relation) and Tommy Milner.

Muller and Andy Priaulx did the initial testing of the M3 in late 2008
prior to its race debut in March at the 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of
Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida.

"I was back in the car five weeks ago in Hungary," said Jorg Muller, whose
last race in the Series was Petit Le Mans in 2001 - a runner-up finish in a
factory BMW M3 GTR. "It felt good to be back in the car and to be back at
Road Atlanta. This is one of the big events in the world, and Sebring is
another, so it is very good. You need to be at a race like this, and of
course I am very happy with the track and the car."

A PLEASED PANIS: Team ORECA's introduction to Road Atlanta - actually a re-
introduction for the team - went very well, Frenchman Olivier Panis
proclaimed. The AIM V10-powered prototype tested Saturday and Sunday, and
again Wednesday in both wet (during the weekend) and dry (Wednesday)
conditions.

Panis will drive with regular teammate Nicolas LaPierre and Porsche factory
driver Romain Dumas, a three-time American Le Mans Series LMP2 champion.
LaPierre and Panis are coming to Road Atlanta following a victory two weeks
ago in the final Le Mans Series round at Silverstone's 1,000K.

The ORECA-AIM is one of 11 LMP1 entries for Petit Le Mans - tying an event
record.

"I think overall we are pretty pleased with the track. For sure we needed
some dry time for a meaningful test and we had a little bit in the
afternoon," said Panis, winner of the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix and veteran of
157 starts in the F1 World Championship. "There are so many things we need
to learn about racing in the American Le Mans Series - pit stops, safety
car rules and other rules.

"There is not much difference at all in the setup today and how we had the
car at Silverstone. We ran the maximum amount of downforce today to learn
more about the track. We will adjust leading up to the race. Plus it helps
to have someone on the team like Romain who is very familiar with the
Series. This will be a tough week."

200 MPH NETWORKS: Autocon Motorsports' Adam Larnach is giving
americanlemans.com readers an inside look at data acquisition in an
American Le Mans Series prototype team. This weekend also marks one full
season since the team acquired the AER-powered Lola B06/10 last year.

"Watching and analyzing the telemetry on Autocon's Lola is a full time job
for three people, so we generally have four to five sets of eyes on various
pages of data looking for specific information," said Larnach, Autocon's
DAG (Data Acquisition Guy). "AER will watch a page with engine data - the
engineer and DAG will watch an "overview" page while recording lap times,
fuel economy and making the necessary strategy adjustments. Occasionally
two of the mechanics will watch the chassis data pages or just to assist in
keeping an eye on things. There are approximately 19 telemetry pages that
cover everything from damper movement to tire pressures in great detail."

AN IMPROVED ACURA: de Ferran Motorsports' XM Acura ARX-02a sat third
overall after Wednesday's test session with a best lap of 1:09.137 (132.259
mph), trailing only one Audi R15 TDI and one Peugeot 908 - both diesel-
powered entries.

The E10-fueled Acura has improved leaps and bounds since its debut at
Sebring in March says past IndyCar and Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon, who is
driving with Pagenaud and team owner Gil de Ferran. The popular Aussie
shocked the sports car world with the overall pole position at Sebring.

GAVIN'S TAKE ON CORVETTE: This weekend's race is by far the toughest
Corvette Racing has faced this season. Not only will it face off against
seven other manufacturers in GT2 at Road Atlanta, it will be the first time
the new Corvette C6.R will run 1,000 consecutive miles at race pace.

"We know there's all those hurdles to overcome, and we know the likes of
BMW, Ferrari and Porsche are going to be exceptionally quick," said Oliver
Gavin, who will drive one of the Corvettes with Olivier Beretta and Marcel
Fassler. "We're going to have to be right on top of our game to be in with
a decent shot. This car hasn't run anywhere near that amount of time all in
one go yet, so it's a bit of an unknown how reliability is going to be.
We've tested, and we've looked and seen and carried over some parts from
the GT1 car in terms of transmission and other bits and pieces, but you're
still not sure when you've got all those pieces together in a brand new car
and a brand new set of circumstances how everything's going to work out."

MR. SUN, SUN...MR. GOLDEN SUN: Please continue to shine down on us!

The grounds at Road Atlanta have dramatically dried since last week's
historic rainfall. Campers moved in Wednesday, and the infield was rapidly
filling up with spectators on the first day of public activity.

The good news is that the forecast - not to mention crowd - continues to
look promising for the rest of the week.

The 12th annual Petit Le Mans powered by MAZDA6 on Saturday, September 26
is the American Le Mans Series' cornerstone event at Road Atlanta in
Braselton Ga. The green flag for the 1,000-mile/10-hour endurance classic
is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. ET with SPEED airing live television coverage
starting at 11 a.m. ET ... rain or shine! American Le Mans Radio presented
by Porsche and Living Timing & Scoring will be available on Racehub at
americanlemans.com. Live coverage also can be heard on Sirius 126 and XM
242. You can follow the Series on Twitter (almsnotes) and on our Facebook
page.

The race will also mark the ninth round of the 2009 MICHELIN® GREEN X®
Challenge. Tickets are available at americanlemans.com and roadatlanta.com.